Busy Feet

Bold imagery and sprightly three-beat couplets combine for a footloose and fancy-free tribute to all the ways that feet can move. From morning till night, two sets of legs—one pair portrayed with brown skin, the other pale and freckled—go-go-go, encountering sand, scooters, slides, swings, and much more as concept-driven rhymes explore various opposites: “IN the sand,/ OUT toes peek./ Playful feet/ hide and seek.” Employing a limited visual perspective that frequently focuses on feet over entire figures, Chapman’s artwork pops off the page with circus hues. As “Feet swing LOW,/ feet swing HIGH./ Little feet/ touch the sky,” the kids appear to laugh while hanging off an electric-hued tire swing. Later, kids with varied abilities and skin tones move in a crowd and amid multicolored balls. When at last tired legs slip into bed, stars fill the room, emblematic of the magic that’s been a day of “busy feet.” Ages 3–7. (Feb.)